Urban Legends
by AriannaCastellis1
Summary: COMPLETE! Amita is attacked. Can Charlie and Don figure out who it was?
1. Default Chapter

**_Urban Legends, A Numb3rs Fic_**  
Title: Urban Legends  
Author: Krisdae  
Pairing: None, although it may seem like Charlie/Amita to some. They are intended to just be friends.  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: The latest "Urban Legend" hits close to home when Amita is attacked. Can Charlie and Don find out the truth?  
Feedback: Is better than Chocolate.  
Warning: This story does contain situations involving possible date rape. Although not depicted in detail, this may bother some.

Chapter one

Charlie paced while he waited for Amita. He hated hospitals, had hated them since long before his mother got sick. The white walls, the echoing corridor, the sterile feel of the waiting room made Charlie sick. Hearing the constant pages for doctors, listening to children cry, some from exhaustion, some from pain, knowing that everyone in that room waited to hear about a loved one… and he was sure the old man in the corner was praying in Yiddish. Who in LA prayed in Yiddish anyway?

Amita may not be fighting for her life, but waiting to hear the results was terrifying to Charlie. It seemed like his worst nightmare because Charlie knew he could have prevented it. Had he just listened to Amita a couple of weeks ago, maybe this would have stopped before it had gotten to someone he cared about. But as usual, Charlie had been focused in his own world. His bubble, as Don called it, and hadn't even really paid attention to the strain in her voice…

"_But, Charlie, there's something not adding up. Sharon isn't the first girl I've heard about."_

Charlie continued to write on his chalkboard, "Amita, you said yourself you don't really know Sharon that well and it could have been a bad night for her. She may have had a few too many drinks. And she tested clean the next day, right?"

"Yes, she did. But, you could ask your brother."   
Charlie shrugged, "This kind of thing isn't really in Don's area."

Amita grabbed Charlie's arm and forced him to actually look at her. "But you could still ask Don. See if there's something out there that could cause her to… act out of character—"

Charlie nodded, still seeing his equations flash over the image of Amita. "All right, Amita. If it will make you feel better, I'll talk to Don about it and see if he's heard anything."

Amita smiled. "That's all I ask."

But Charlie hadn't asked. He'd gotten caught up in Don's latest case and hadn't thought it was important. After all, these kinds of things happened to strangers, people that Charlie didn't know. Not someone he was close to, not someone he cared about. And really, what kind of drug could go in and out of someone's system so quickly that it didn't show up when they were tested?

Amita was silent as she drove them back to her apartment. The doctors had examined her and informed her that she had not been raped. Her blood showed almost no traces of alcohol and no foreign substances. Anything that had happened the night before had happened with her consent and without the influence of drugs or drink.

Charlie was at a loss. He wasn't exactly the one people went to with problems. After knowing Charlie a short time people realized that he preferred numbers to people and that he had no clue how to deal with a crises. Not that Charlie didn't care, but he couldn't handle situations that were not defined and logical.

Amita pulled into the parking lot and turned off the car. She didn't move or say anything. Finally, Charlie broke the silence, "Do you want me to stay with you?" His voice seemed loud and flat in the quiet car and Amita jumped as if she hadn't realized he was still there.

She turned to Charlie and he saw pain in her eyes. "That depends, Charlie. Do you believe that I was coerced into having sex with a total stranger last night or do you think that I don't know myself as well as I think I do?"

"I believe you, Amita, because _I_ know _you_." Silence descended on the car again. "Do you want me to call Don? Maybe he can help."

Amita shook her head. "Right now I just want to take a long shower and be alone for a while." She pulled her keys from the ignition and got out of the car, Charlie following. As they neared his bike, she stopped. "Thank you for coming with me, Charlie."

"Of course, Amita," Charlie replied, wishing he could do more for her. As he rode home, he vowed that he would speak to Don as soon as possible. If anyone could help figure out what happened to Amita, it was his big brother.

TBC...


	2. Chapter Two

**_Urban Legends: Chapter Two_**  
Title: Urban Legends  
Author: **krisdae**   
Pairing: None, although it may seem like Charlie/Amita to some. They are intended to just be friends.  
Rating: PG-13  
Beta: A big thanks to **marvinetta** for being a wonderful, fast beta. You rock!  
Summary: The latest "Urban Legend" hits close to home when Amita is attacked. Can Charlie and Don find out the truth?  
Disclaimer: Sadly I own nothing that revolves around the world of Numb3rs.  
Warning: This story does contain situations involving possible date rape. Although not depicted in detail, this may bother some.

Chapter Two

Charlie arrived home, disappointed that Don's car was not in outside. Don stopped by so often that Charlie almost expected him to be there every day. But, knowing Don, he was probably in his office, even on a Sunday.

Alan was reading a book in the living room when Charlie entered. "Everything okay, Charlie? You left rather early this morning."

"Yeah, dad. I had to help Amita with… a problem."

Alan put his book down and regarded his son. "Well, I hope it wasn't anything serious."

Charlie shrugged in reply, not wanting to discuss anything. His father often seemed to know what Charlie carefully didn't say. "Dad, do you know if Don's coming over for dinner?"

"I don't know. He didn't say. But you know your brother, he's more likely to show up than not once he finally pulls himself away from work."

Normally, numbers consumed Charlie completely. He would get wrapped up in the way that equations balanced and completed and the beauty behind the process was always present in front of Charlie's mind. Rarely did he pull himself completely away from the safety of numbers to fully focus on the world around him.

But tonight he found he was having trouble focusing on numbers. Every few minutes, Charlie glanced at the clock, willing Don to come over for dinner, not even knowing if he would be coming. He was working on his lecture notes for the morning and he couldn't keep the numbers in front of him. Instead his mind was filled with Amita's face as she told Charlie she had been attacked the night before.

_Amita answered the door, looking very tired and ragged. Charlie's half asleep mind jolted awake at the uncharacteristic sadness that he could see in her face._

"Thanks for coming over so early, Charlie." She lead him into her apartment.

"It's fine, really." They sat on the couch and Charlie waited for Amita to tell him why she had called. Charlie wasn't sure if he was supposed to comment on how Amita looked this morning or politely ignore it. 

"Charlie," Amita began. "I think I may have been raped last night." Charlie put his hand over Amita's as she struggled to continue. "You know I told you that Sharon had thought she was date raped a few weeks ago, but she hadn't felt any of the symptoms of Rohypnol in her system."

"I remember. You said that she had been acting abnormally that night and you didn't think it was just the alcohol."

Amita nodded, "Well, I only had 1 drink last night and it was pretty early in the evening. I don't really know what happened, but I couldn't control myself. I was completely different than I ever remember being. All I know is I somehow ended up going home with this guy…God, I can't even remember his name…I woke up this morning about 5 at his apartment. And the crazy thing is, I didn't even think anything odd about it until I got home. Then it slowly started sinking in just what happened and I…"

Charlie's hand tightened on Amita's, "What is it?"

"I didn't want it, Charlie. I'm not like that, I don't usually even give out my last name to people I meet, much less go home with them. I wasn't drinking and the only thing I can think is that I must have been drugged."

Charlie had managed to convince Amita to go to the hospital. Rohypnol only stayed in the system for so long and if they wanted to find out if she had been drugged, they needed to go right away. He had gone with Amita that morning, wanting to give her as much support as he could. But truthfully, Charlie was afraid what he was able to do would be very little. And right now, what he was _supposed_ to be doing was preparing for class.

Charlie glanced up from his lecture notes to see that the clock hadn't changed much since the last time he looked. Where was his brother when he needed him? Alan called from the other room, "You know, there was this amazing invention from a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. It allows people to communicate when they're not in the same place."

Charlie turned his head, not quite understanding what his father was trying to say. Alan indicated the phone. "Call your brother. It's obvious you want to talk to him, and it would be nice to have his company for dinner."

Charlie picked up the phone and dialed Don's cell number. He picked up on the second ring, "Eppes."

"Don, it's Charlie."

"Hey Charlie. How's it going?" 

Charlie could hear someone talking in the background and knew Don was in the office. "All right. Look, I just wanted to know if you could stop by for dinner."

"I don't know if I'm going to make it out of here in time, Charlie."

"Oh," Well, there went his chance to ask for Don's input.

"Look, Charlie. Why don't I stop by on my way home? I don't know when I'll actually get to leave, but I can swing by the house."

"Ok. That'd be good."

Charlie hung up the phone and turned back to his lecture notes. He became so lost in his world of numbers he was startled to feel a hand on his shoulder. It was Don. Charlie glanced at the clock, surprised that less than an hour had gone by since he'd hung up the phone.

"Don. I didn't expect you this early."

Don shrugged, "I figured you must need to talk about something. I usually don't get calls from you asking me about dinner."

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, there is something I wanted to run by you." He glanced towards the kitchen where Alan was working on dinner. "Can we go talk outside?"

Charlie led the way to the fishpond and squatted down to watch the swirling colors. "I've been hearing some disturbing things around campus lately. There have been rumors of people getting attacked."

"Attacked?"

"Yeah. They go out on the weekends, they have a couple of drinks, and when they wake up the next day, they find out that…" Charlie trailed off, not sure how to put this so that Don would believe that something sinister was happening.

"Wait, Charlie. Tell me this isn't the story about how college kids wake up in a tub full of ice with their kidneys missing."

"I'm being serious!"

"Okay, I'm sorry. Tell me exactly what's going on."

"I've been hearing about girls going out on the weekends and finding out the next day that they've been…taken advantage of."

"You mean like date rape?" Charlie nodded. "I hate to tell you this, buddy, but it's an unfortunate part of life. It's pretty common and people don't always watch their drinks as well as they should. Even with companies trying to make Rohypnol more detectable in drinks, it's still too easy for someone to slip it to someone. The best thing for these girls to do is go get checked out at the hospital as soon as it happens. Then they can file a report with the police."

"But, there's nothing there."

"What?"

"There's nothing there when the girls go into the hospital to get checked out. Nothing in their system to show they were drugged, no symptoms that are usually associated with date rape drugs."

"Wait a minute, Charlie. Are you trying to tell me that girls are saying they've been a victim of date rape, but there are no symptoms and no evidence of drugs in their system?"

"Yeah."

"Charlie, that doesn't make any sense. Are you sure that you're hearing things right? It's kind of hard to believe that someone would say they've been assaulted when there are no factors that point to it. No symptoms, no evidence in their bloodstream. What makes them think something has happened?"

Charlie began to pace and wave his hands as he tried to explain, "Because it's completely out of nature for them. They start acting strangely and unlike themselves and do things they normally wouldn't dream of doing."

"Are you sure these girls just didn't have too much to drink? Maybe they realized they did something stupid and are trying to explain why. And rumors aren't always true, Charlie. You probably just heard something that got blown out of proportion."

"No, Don. That's not it. These girls, they didn't drink too much, they didn't just try to explain away a stupid night. She's not… they're not like that. There's something else going on."

Don put his hands on Charlie's shoulders, causing Charlie to stop his pacing. "Just who are we talking about here, Charlie? Who got hurt?"

Charlie closed his eyes. Amita would skin him alive for this. "It's Amita. She was attacked last night. And she's the third one I know of in the last 6 weeks."

Don's hands dropped from Charlie's shoulders. "Amita. Is she okay?"

Charlie glared at his older brother, "What do you think?"

"Right. Look, Charlie. I can't promise anything, but I will go and talk to Amita, see what I can find out. Right now that's all I can do."

"Thank you"

"Boys!" Alan shouted from the doorway. "Come on inside to eat."

Don and Charlie walked back to the house and Don slug his arm around Charlie's shoulders. "After dinner, Charlie. We'll go over and talk to Amita."

TBC


	3. Chapter Three

Title: Urban Legends  
Author: **krisdae**   
Pairing: None, although it may seem like Charlie/Amita to some. They are intended to just be friends.  
Rating: PG-13  
Beta: A big thanks to **marvinetta** for being a wonderful, fast beta. You rock!  
Feedback: Please! bats eyes It's what keeps me writing.  
Warning: This story does contain situations involving possible date rape. Although not depicted in detail, this may bother some.

Chapter Three

Don knocked on Amita's door, dreading the conversation. If Amita had not been attacked, Charlie wouldn't take it well. And if she had… Either way, Don was going to have to be careful how he asked his questions. He'd asked rape victims questions before, but now he had to ask them in front of his brother. And he wasn't sure this _was_ rape. But he had decided that treating it like rape was the best way to handle both Charlie and Amita.

Amita answered the door and Don could tell that she was not taking the situation well. Her eyes were bloodshot as if she had been crying earlier. Her hair was tangled around her shoulders and her clothes rumpled, letting Don know she hadn't been up and around for most of the day.

"Charlie, Don," she said as she held the door open. She led them over to the couch. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, thank you," Don waited for Amita to sit down. "I know that this is a tough time for you, but I need to ask you a few questions about last night."

"Charlie told you," Amita turned accusing eyes to Charlie.

"I had to. I told Don about the rumors and he didn't think there was anything to them so I needed to convince him otherwise and-"

Don cut Charlie off, "Amita, Charlie told me because he cares about you. And he was right, I probably wouldn't have taken an interest in the situation if it wasn't someone we knew. This isn't exactly the type of thing that the FBI would get involved in."

"So, you believe there is something to this?" Amita asked.

"I know that you think there is and Charlie mentioned that there were others with the same story. So, let's find out what's going on, all right?" At Amita's nod, Don began to relax. He felt like he was on more familiar ground now. "Why don't you start at the beginning of last night."

"Well, I went out with a couple of girlfriends to this club called Forbidden Sights. It's nice sometimes to get away from the pressure of school. We always make sure there are at least three of us. That way we can watch each other's drinks and make sure that none of us go home with anyone else."

"So what was different about last night?"

"Nothing at first. I had a rum and coke at the beginning of the night, but that was my only drink. Casey and Amanda were dancing and I was watching the table when this guy came up. I don't know his name, but I remember thinking he was cute. Tall, blond… He sat down and we started talking. Nothing big, just 'hey, what do you do, where you from' kind of stuff. At the time I was feeling really good. Kind of high on life and really happy with no worries. And I also remember thinking that I wanted this guy.

"I should have known something was wrong with me then, because I'm _never_ like that, even with guys I know and like. I'm not that type of girl."

"We know that," Charlie put in.

"Anyway, I was sitting with this guy and feeling, well, horney, for lack of a better word. By the time Casey came back to the table, we were pretty much all over each other. She was worried that I wasn't acting like myself, but she made me look her in the eye and swear that I was fine before she let me go with him." Amita looked at the floor. "I told Casey that I wanted to go with him. That I felt fine and she didn't need to worry about me."

"So you left with him voluntarily?"

"Yes."

"And this morning?"

"I woke up at the guy's apartment. And I didn't think anything odd about it. I just walked to a payphone and called a cab to bring me home. I got here and crashed on the couch. When I woke up again a couple of hours later, it was a whole new awareness. Suddenly everything about last night seemed false."

"False?"

"I mean, when I remember last night, it's like I'm watching someone else. As if the normal part of me was shut inside and someone else was dictating my actions. I can't believe that I would do something like that. It was like I had no inhibitions and an intense craving for release from someone. I don't think it would have made a difference who was there as long as they were offering to have sex."

"Amita, who made the first move last night?"

Amita's voice was so soft Don almost missed it. "I did." There was silence in the room for a few moments. "Don, do you believe me when I say that I didn't have control of myself last night?"

Don looked from Charlie to Amita. Charlie's eyes were begging him to believe in Amita and Amita's eyes were showing defeat. "I have to tell you, your story wouldn't hold up well if you were to file rape charges." Don held up his hand as he saw Charlie about to interrupt. "But, there is definitely something to look into. I can't make any guesses right now, but I want to talk to the other girls you know who have suffered from this scenario. I'll also need to talk to your friends Casey and Amanda. Can you give me all their names and numbers?"

Amita nodded and went to get paper to write the names down leaving Don and Charlie in her living room. Charlie glared at his brother. "You don't believe her."

Don sighed. "It's not a very credible story, Charlie. But, I know that she's a friend and I'm willing to look into it. If there is something going on, we need to find out about it."

"Thanks"

"Yeah, well don't get your hopes up. So far, it doesn't look like we have much to go on."

Monday morning, Don grabbed coffee and went to the conference room near his office. He had gone out early this morning to interview Sharon. After dropping Charlie off the night before, he had called Terry and David, deciding that they should split up the interviews. No sense using too many resources if there was nothing to investigate. They were supposed to meet this morning and compare notes.

Terry and David were already inside the conference room when Don came in and pulled up a chair. "All right, Terry. You spoke to Karen this morning?"

"Yes. She was attacked on December 17th. Her story runs much the same as Amita's. She was out with some friends at a club. She didn't have anything alcoholic to drink because she was the designated driver for the evening. She met a guy, danced for a while and then went out to his car and had sex with him. She says his first name was Steve, but doesn't remember his last name. He was kind of short, which she usually doesn't go for, and long black hair.

"She says he didn't force her, but that she didn't feel normal. She described the feeling as walking through water. As if her limbs weren't moving the same was as they usually did. She suffered no memory loss or disorientation. The next day she felt like she was coming out of a fog and was mortified at what happened."

Don nodded. "And was there any trace of anything in her system?"

Terry shook her head. "She didn't go into the doctor. She believed she did something stupid and it wasn't until one of her friends mentioned a friend of a friend of a friend had a similar occurrence that she thought maybe she had been drugged. By then it was to late."

"Okay. David? You talked to Casey and Amanda?"

"Yes. They both said that as far as they knew, Amita only had the one drink early in the evening, but she might have had more when they weren't looking. But I think we can rule that out since one of them would have seen something and Casey said Amita didn't look drunk hen she talked with her at the table.

"From what Amanda told me, she saw Amita and this guy were getting pretty heavy when she looked over at the table. And it didn't look like Amita had any objections. But Casey said that there was something off about Amita."

"Off?" asked Terry. "How?"

"She says that Amita didn't have glassy eyes or dilated pupils like someone who's taken drugs. But she looked a little flushed and was acting out of character. Apparently, Amita doesn't even talk to guys when they go out. But, Casey couldn't see anything wrong with Amita when she looked at her closely and she is an adult, so she let her go."

Don swiveled in his chair as he thought. "Don? What did Sharon say?"

"Well, Sharon was out at a club with Amita. Unlike the other two, Sharon was drinking the night before, but wasn't really drunk from what Sharon says. A young black guy came up to her, offered to buy her a drink, but she turned him down saying she wanted to be sober to enjoy his attentions. She ended up in a back alley with him. Afterwards, she went back in and was dancing with her friends as if nothing had happened. But the next day she felt victimized. She actually went to the doctor, thinking she had been slipped Rohypnol, but they didn't find anything in her blood or urine. And now Sharon refuses to go to Forbidden Sights."

Terry's head snapped up, "Forbidden Sights? That's the name of the club?"

Don nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"That's the same place Karen was attacked."

Don's eyes narrowed slightly. "And it's the same place that Amita was attacked."

"That's a little more than coincidence," David said. "Maybe there's more to their story than it looks like."

"Yeah," agreed Don. "And maybe there's a drug out there that's more effective than Rohypnol."

"Let's hope not," Terry said.

"So now what?" asked David. "There's really no proof that anything's going on."

"So we find it," Don said. "David, why don't you find out if there have been more of these cases reported. Let's get an idea of how frequently this is happening. Terry and I are going to speak with a doctor. Let's see if we can shed some light on this possible drug."

TBC


	4. Chapter Four

Author: **krisdae**   
Pairing: None  
Rating: PG-13  
Beta: As always,a big thanks to **marvinetta** for being a wonderful, fast beta. You rock!  
Summary: The latest "Urban Legend" hits close to home when Amita is attacked. Can Charlie and Don find out the truth?  
Disclaimer: Sadly I own nothing that revolves around the world of Numb3rs.  
Feedback: Please! bats eyes  
Warning: This story does contain situations involving possible date rape. Although not depicted in detail, this may bother some.

A/N: A big thanks to **corporea**, my wonderful roommie (the doctor) who helped me with some of the details in this part.

Urban Legends

Chapter Four

Don and Terry walked into the hospital. They had gotten the name of the physician who had seen Amita the day before and decided he may be the best resource for their questions.

Dr. Reeves was a short man with smile lines and a firm handshake. He ushered Don and Terry into his office and closed the door.

"Now, agents. What can I do to help you?"

"Doctor, you saw a young girl by the name of Amita Ramanujan yesterday."

Dr. Reeves frowned slightly, "Yes. The young woman came in to be checked for signs of rape. Are you here to talk about her case?"

"Yes. Now, we were told that you didn't find anything in her system?"

"There was nothing found in the screen of her blood or urine that would indicate incapacitation. And from the information she gave me, it would have been within the time limits of most drugs to still have residual traces in her system."

"So there were no drugs involved."

"I didn't exactly say that."

Don exchanged a glance with Terry. "Are you saying there might have been something?" Terry asked.

"There are certain chemicals commonly used for date rape. There are others that can have similar effects. And of course, there's always the influence of alcohol. These are the things we test for." Dr. Reeves paused a moment before continuing. "I usually wouldn't suggest anything else, but I've heard that there have been more than one of these cases in the last couple of months. It's quite possible that something else was used."

"If that's a possibility, then why didn't you test for it?" asked Terry.

"We didn't know what to test for."

"Wait," said Don holding up his hand. "You can't just test for everything and see what's there? What if it's a new drug?"

Dr. Reeves sat back in his chair. "Agent, it's not that simple. To find anything in someone's system, we have to know what we're testing for. We can't just plug blood into some machine and have it tell us exactly what's been pumped into it. 

"And if it's some sort of new drug, how would we be able to figure out what to test for? How do we know if we need to be looking for something in the blood stream or in the urine? A new drug may stay in the blood for a long time before breaking down or be in the blood for a matter of minutes."

"Is there any way we can figure out what to test for?" asked Terry.

"It's possible that if I had enough blood from someone recently attacked I could do some other scans. I could at least test for some chemicals that aren't usually tested for in rape cases. But it would have to be within a few hours of being ingested into their system."

"That rules out Amita, then," Don said. "It's been at least 36 hours."

Dr. Reeves shook his head. "I'm sorry that I can't help you further. I will keep an ear open for similar cases in the future and see if they would be willing to speak with you and have their blood tested more extensively. Other than that, I'm afraid there isn't much I can do."

Don was rereading the files from that morning when David returned to the office. "All right, I checked out the reports made on rape since last August. There have been almost 100 cases reported since then. I narrowed it down to CalSci and ended up with 13 cases."

"13?" asked Don. "Since August?"

"And those are only the reported ones," commented Terry.

David continued, "I then dismissed the ones that were violent rapes to focus on the date rape cases. Of those cases, there were 2 that seemed to fit to our pattern." He handed the files to Don as he explained. "These two attacks were reported by women who were at a club and ended up being victimized. One was at XTC and she didn't bother going to the hospital after talking with the police."

"Why not?" asked Terry.

"Probably because she got the brush off. Looking at her file, she really didn't have much of a case."

"What about the other one?" inquired Don.

"She was at our club, Forbidden Sights. She did go to the doctor, but there wasn't anything found in her system."

"That's becoming a trend," Terry said.

"Okay," said Don. "I'm going to take this information to Charlie. He might be able to figure out what the pattern is. Five is too many cases to be a coincidence, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious pattern either. Terry, why don't you fill David in on our visit with Dr. Reeves."

Terry nodded as Don grabbed his jacket and headed for the door, grabbing the latest files on his way.

Charlie was working at the table when he heard Don come in. "Hello?"

"In here, Don."

Don came in and put a folder on the table. Charlie looked from the folder to Don's face. "You found something."

"I think so. But, we're not sure just what yet."

Don began to explain their findings while Charlie looked through the files. His mind began processing and calculating even before he had finished looking through the first case. By the time Don was done with his explanation, Charlie already had half a sheet of notations down. He barely realized when Don left.

Charlie looked over the cases several times feeling like something was missing. It just didn't fit right. How come he couldn't see what it was? He began to flip through each case again, trying to find the piece he was missing.

"How's it going, buddy?" Don asked him as he took a seat at the table.

Charlie looked up, startled to realize it had been several hours since he'd started to work. He blinked, trying to pull himself back to the present. "I'm not sure what I'm looking for, Don. There's not enough information to see a pattern. I need more information."

"There isn't any right now, Charlie. These five attacks are the only ones we know about."

Charlie threw his pencil down. "Then I don't know how to help, Don. I feel like there's something here that I'm missing. Something I'm just not seeing, but I don't know what it is. There has to be because otherwise there's nothing to link the victims." Charlie got up and began to pace.

"There's no reason, looking at this data, to believe that there is anything similar about these attacks."

"What do you mean? All these women were drugged with something and then taken advantage of."

"But, there's no evidence. Two of the girls never even went to the doctor, so we really don't know the state of their blood results. And you can't base commonality on an unknown. The only thing that links these victims is the fact that they're CalSci students and that doesn't really tell us much since that was the parameter you looked into."

"What about the club? Forbidden Sights? That's a commonality."

"But, not a good enough one. First, victim 2, Carol, she was attacked at XTC."

"What about the others?"

"Don, Forbidden Sights is a popular club. It's probably _the_ most popular club for CalSci students."

"Which makes it a logical point for someone to be attacking students there."

Charlie stopped his pacing and stared at Don. "You've read these reports, Don. The attackers have been different every time."

"So what are you saying, Charlie? That there isn't any case? Do you want me to drop it?"

"No! Of course not. I'm just saying that there has to be more here than we're seeing. Maybe something else that these girls all have in common. I'm just going to have to look a little harder."

"Well, you try and find out what the victims all have in common and I'll try and track down this unknown drug." Don put his hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Hey, we'll figure out what's going on. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything the two of us can't solve together."


	5. Chapter Five

Urban Legends

Author:Krisdae

A/N: A big thanks goes to Marvinetta who has been a wonderful beta. And Corporea who is a good roommie and has helped with some of the medical information. Thank you both.

Chapter Five

Tuesday morning, Charlie tracked down Amita. He knew she would want an update on what was happening, as he owed her that much. She looked infinitely better than she had on Sunday, but there was an underlying sadness in her face that tore at Charlie's heart. It made him more determined to figure out what was happening.

"Hey, Charlie."

"Amita. I just wanted to let you know what was going on."

Amita sat down, "Did Don find anything?"

"Well, yes and no. He talked to several people and he does believe there is something not quite right. But, we're not sure what's going on yet." Amita didn't respond. "Hey, we're going to find out what happened. My brother's good at that."

"Is there some way I can help?" Amita asked. "I've helped you out a couple of times before with the projects for Don. Maybe I can help this time, too."

Helping out may be the best thing for her, so Charlie nodded and opened his bag, taking out the case files. "Sure. Maybe you can see something I missed."

They bent over the desk, discussing the case in soft tones, each hoping an answer would arise.

Don, Terry and David were at a loss as to where to turn next. They could wait and see if Charlie found any pattern, but there was little hope of that occurring since there was no way to guarantee that they had all the cases involved.

"Okay, let's try and break this down. What do we know about the victims?"

"They were all women," David said.

"They were all out at clubs dancing. But there is at least one known instance that was a separate club." Said Terry. "So, it's not a common factor."

"And although the girls were all attacked by men, none of them seem to be linked together." Don added.

"Maybe there's a connection between the attackers that we can't really see," suggested Terry.

"You mean, they knew each other?" asked David.

"Maybe. Or maybe they have a different connection, like going to the same gym. I mean, they have to be getting this stuff somewhere, right?"

"Right," said Don. "They need access to this stuff from somewhere."

"But, we can't ask them," pointed out David. "In most cases, we don't even have a name. Just a very general description."

"I doubt they would admit to putting something in a girls drink, anyway." Terry said. "There's no proof of drugs anyway. We'd need something more before we could talk to them."

"So, how can we find out who these guys all knew?" Don pondered.

"Well, I can contact the victims again and see if they remember anyone else with the guys who attacked them,. Maybe they got the drugs on scene at the club." David offered.

"Good, and try to get better information on these guys, too. I want to track them down and have a talk with them."

"On it," David said as he went towards his desk.

Terry and Don stared at the files for a few more minutes and then Terry asked, "What can we do to try and—"

The phone interrupted Terry and Don answered.

"Eppes."

_Angent, this is Doctor Reeves._

"Yes, doctor. What can I do for you?"

_There's something here at the hospital I think you should see._

"Does this relate to our conversation yesterday?"

_Yes. A young man died last night at a club. After our talk yesterday I thought I would check out the circumstances. I think his death may be related to your case._

"Thank you Doctor. My partner and I will be down shortly." Don hung up the phone and rose, grabbing his jacket. "Doctor Reeves says there's a body of a boy that may help us." He told Terry as she followed him.

"A boy?"

"Yeah, I know. But, he thinks it may be related."

Terry shrugged as they headed out of the office. "Any lead is a good one."

Don and Terry found Doctor Reeves waiting for them when they arrived at the hospital. He looked agitated and worried, two emotions Don didn't want to see on the doctor.

"Thank you for coming so quickly agents," he said as he lead them to his office.

"Thank you for calling us," Terry answered. "Anything that can help us would be welcome."

"Yes, well, if what I'm about to share with you has anything to do with your investigation, it will end up helping me out as well." He ushered Don and Terry inside his office and offered them coffee.

Don shook his head as he sat, "Any way we can help, we will."

Doctor Reeves sat on the other side of his desk and fiddled with a folder. "The young boy I called you about… his name is Jack Timmons. I heard a few details this morning when I came in and it made me think of your questions from yesterday. As I gathered more information, I began to suspect this might have something to do with your investigation."

Doctor Reeves handed the folder over to Don and he opened it, with Terry looking over his shoulder. Jack Timmons was a smiling young man who couldn't be more than 25.

"He's so young," commented Terry.

"Yes, he was," Doctor Reeves agreed.

"What, exactly, am I looking for, Doctor?" Don asked, trying to make sense of the folder he was holding.

Doctor Reeves leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. "Jack Timmons was taking part in a drug study here at the hospital. He was taking compound TX147, which is a drug similar to Viagra."

Terry looked up from the folder, "Isn't that for erectile dysfunction?"

Doctor Reeves nodded, "Yes, it is. This particular compound has been in the trial phase for several months using a variety of people who have volunteered.

"Timmons was apparently out at some club last night when he just collapsed. He was dead by the time they got him to the hospital. His autopsy showed large amounts of TX147 in his blood. More than there should have been."

"Is this drug that dangerous?" Don asked, surprised.

"I'm not sure what happened, yet, but the drug works by constricting blood vessels. From what I can tell in his autopsy, the blood vessels around his heart may have been constricted from the surplus of TX147 in his system. He had almost twice the amount he would have from the trials. Even though that could have been a mistake, I believe he got the drug from another source than through the trials."

"You think this is the drug we're looking for," Don stated.

Doctor Reeves got up and began to pace, his agitation coming through. "I think it may be a possibility. I can't really tell you why this struck me as so odd, except that this boy died in one of the clubs in the area that I know you're looking into. My gut tells me there's something else happening."

"So, now what?" Terry asked. "Can we get information on this trial?"

Doctor Reeves shook his head. "I'm sorry, but the hospital can't share information about the trials with you unless you have a warrant, and I know you can't possibly get one with this information."

"A boy has died," Don said. "And women are getting attacked. We need to be able to stop this."

Doctor Reeves paused, looking at the closed door for a moment. "Agents, I want to help. This is why I called. Doctor Condron, the one who heads up this study, is a reasonable man, but he won't give you information right now. But I am willing to ask some questions of people and see what information I can find about this compound if you tell me what you need. If someone's getting to this compound and putting it on the streets, it needs to be stopped."

"You can get us a list of which doctors are a part of the study, as well as any nurses or technicians that may have access to the drug," Don said.

Terry added, "You could ask about strange side effects that may have been reported. Notably a lowering of inhibitions or increased sex drive."

"Also try to find out if anyone thinks the compound has gone missing," Don included. "Somewhere there must be a log of how much of that stuff you have. We need to know if any of it's gone missing."

Doctor Reeves nodded. "I will find out everything I can and pass it on to you."

"Thank you, Doctor Reeves," terry said as she stood. "You may end up saving a lot of people by helping us."

TBC


	6. Chapter Six

Urban Legends  
By: Krisdae  
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own mothing related to Numb3rs  
Warnings: Date rape (Not described)  
A/N: A big thanks to my beat, **marvinetta** for all her work.  
Reviews: Please! It's better than chocolate.

A big thank you to those of you have reviewed! More is on the way…promise.

Chapter Six

Charlie Eppes was good at math. There was no denying that fact and most people believed he could do anything with them. But, unfortunately, that wasn't true. Some problems were not solvable, no matter how much you wanted them to be. And the ones that were… well, you had to have enough information to find the answer. And therein lay Charlie's current problem.

At this point, Charlie wasn't even sure what he was looking for. The reports had very little in common. Even taking out the one case from XTC only allowed for one common factor in the rest: Forbidden Sights. Charlie knew he had to be missing something and that knowledge was eating away at him. So, as in all things, when he started to question himself, he went to see someone who could put his thoughts back into their correct perspective.

Professor Larry Fleinhardt was the epitome of the absent-minded professor. Once distracted, he may forget what he was doing. He had trouble connecting with his young students outside of the classroom, and sometimes within it. But, no matter what some people may think about Larry, he was very intelligent and had the experience in some areas that Charlie lacked. And Larry _always_ had time for Charlie. No matter what else was going on, Larry could be depended on to help Charlie focus his thoughts and see what he was doing wrong.

After catching up with Larry, Charlie quickly outlined his problem. "Well, it seems to me that you have already found what the problem is. The data you have is incomplete."

"Yes," acknowledged Charlie. "But I need to try and find some way to help Don find something. Even if it's not a point of origin, I need to help discover a line of investigation."

"Isn't it usually the FBI's job to follow leads and find clues? Maybe you should let them do their job. You've said yourself that your brother is good at what he does."

"But I need to help, Larry. I can't tell you why, but it's kind of personal and I have all these numbers that don't make any sense."

"Charles, you said yourself that the data is incomplete. If you don't have enough information about this case, you won't be able to find any kind of pattern or origin. You don't even have the context of the numbers."

Charlie tilted his head as he considered, "What do you mean by context?"

"I mean that you don't really have a reference for these numbers. The common links are probably things that are located in the club and have little to do with the actual attack. For example, there could be something at the place itself that's causing the attacks to be possible. What if it's picked up at one particular booth? Or through some other contact that has nothing to do with a specific person?"

"Right," Charlie said. "The victims were never asked about anything but what was specific to the attack. But they didn't take the location itself into consideration." And idea began to form in the back of Charlie's mind. "Thank you, Larry."

"Anytime, Charles."

Back at the FBI office, Don and Terry began to look through all the information that Doctor Reeves had sent with them. He promised to find out more, but he had given them a list of the people most directly involved in the program at the hospital. He was going to send a more comprehensive list over as soon as he could. Don had called David Sinclair and asked him to talk to Timmons's girl friend to see what she could tell them about the night before.

"This is interesting," Terry commented, causing Don to look up from the file he was reading. "Brian Wohlmer, the resident who is working on this project, attended medical school at the USC Medical Center here in Los Angeles. But, before that, his pre-med degree was from CalSci."

Don considered for a moment. "That gives him the local knowledge of the area. Our guy would need to know the college hangouts. And Forbidden Sights seems to be the favorite for CalSci students."

"It also puts him in the right age range," added Terry. "We're looking for someone in their twenties or early thirties. He's working insane hours and may not be able to get out much. Maybe he figured this drug could help him get a girl without having to try hard."

"It's definitely something to look into," agreed Don. "We need to find out his schedule and see when he was working and when he may have been at Forbidden Sights. People are creatures of habit. If he went there as a CalSci student, he probably still goes there."

"And he may still have friends from college in the area. We already figure there's more than one person involved. Wohlmer may be supplying his friends with the drug."

"All right. Let's check him out."

He was angry. Well, that was no longer entirely accurate. Last night he had been angry, today he was moving past that emotion and heading into scared. He had killed someone. Well, not him, actually, but he had helped kill the guy in the morgue. Things had been fine until he'd come in yesterday and found that someone had died from a drug overdose. An overdose of the compound he'd been sneaking out of the hospital for the last several months. It was only a matter of time before someone starting putting the pieces together. Now was the time to become scarce. All he had to do was convince the others of that.

"Hey man!" Came the greeting from across the park. The second man sat down on the bench. "What's so urgent you had to get me out of bed before noon?"

The man scowled. "You shouldn't be so cheerful this morning. I told you two weeks ago that you were using too much of that stuff. Now it's gone and killed someone."

The other man stopped smiling, "What do you mean? You told me that stuff was safe!"

"It is! But too much of it can kill someone, as I just found out. And what were you doing giving that stuff to a guy anyway?"

"I didn't give anything to a guy. We've been following your orders exactly. When we dump that stuff randomly, we make sure it's going to a table that only has girls."

"Well, it got into this guy's system somehow. We need to cut it out for a few weeks."

"Oh, come on! You can't be serious. There's no way that they can tie anything to us."

"I'm telling you, you'd better stop. If you don't cool it for a while, there's not going to be any more of this stuff."

"All right, I'll tall the boys. We'll cut it out for now. But you're going to see that you're overreacting."

"Better to overreact than end up in jail." He rose from the bench and headed back towards the hospital. He hated double shift days. He never seemed to get enough sleep and now he had to worry about those bozos messing up his plans.

David entered the FBI office and sat down by Don and Terry. His interview with Mackenzie Miller had been rough. She was very upset over her boyfriend's death and blamed herself because going to the club had been her idea. He sat heavily in his chair, hoping there would be an end to this case before any more lives were destroyed.

"What you find out?" Don asked.

"I spoke with Mackenzie about going to the club on Monday. She said that going out had been her idea. They had plans to meet at 9:00, but Jake was pretty late. Mackenzie had ordered her second drink by the time he got there. She says that Jake didn't order anything. He'd had some of her drink, but nothing of his own. When I asked if he'd been acting strangely at all, she said not really.

"I asked her if she knew about the drug trial Jake was taking part in and she said yes. When I asked about any side effects he may have experienced, she said that they believed he was actually getting the drug because ever since the trials began, their sex life has gotten more active. And last night was no exception. She said before he ended up collapsing, they were talking about going back to her place for the night even though Jake had originally not wanted to go out because of a term paper he was working on.

"Then, as they were coming off the dance floor, Jake suddenly fell to the floor. Someone called an ambulance, but by the time the EMTs arrived, he was already dead."

David stropped his report and watched as Don and Terry exchanged a look. Sometimes it amazed him how well they could communicate with each other and David hoped that some day he'd understand his co-workers that well.

Don reached over and handed a folder to David. David opened it and listened as Don told him what had happened at the hospital the day before and what they were working on now.

"So you think this Brian Wohlmer may have some sort of connection to this?" David asked when Don was finished filling him in.

"It's starting to look that way," Don said. "Terry and I are going to go talk with him. I want you to contact Forbidden Sights and get a list of employees. Find out if any of the waiters or bartenders were students at CalSci."

"I'm on it," David said as he stood once more. At least this time he wouldn't have to look into the face of a girl who'd just lost someone she loved.

Charlie paced in front of the chalkboard. "Amita, I think Larry may be onto something. I mean, what if the reason the attackers were all different was because they weren't the ones who spiked the drinks?"

Amita looked doubtful. "I don't see any reason to just randomly spike drinks. What would they get out of it?"

"Maybe it's for testing," Charlie suggested. "Or maybe it's just some sort of sick joke. But either way it's possible that we're looking at the wrong information."

"Well, what exactly do we need to look for?" Amita asked.

Charlie stopped to look outside the window. The early spring day seemed incongruous with the conversation at hand. Discussions about rape should happen on a stormy day. Or at least at night when it was dark and the boogey man was more believable. "I'm not sure," admitted Charlie. "But I think I know how to find out." He turned to Amita, not wanting to ask too much of her, but knowing that he really needed her help on this. "I need to check out the place. I need to see the place for myself and get an idea of what people may have come in contact with. And I can't do it on my own."

Amita shook her head. "It's a bad idea, Charlie. And your brother would kill you for even thinking about it."

"Well, we won't tell him." Amita didn't look convinced. "Amita, I know you don't really want to go back there, but I'll be there to protect you."

"I'm not the one I'm worried about, Charlie. You've never been to Forbidden Sights,. It can get kind of intense."

"That's why I need you to go with me, Amita. For protection." He grinned at her, knowing that she would cave in eventually. Amita finally nodded. "Thank you," Charlie said. "You won't regret this."

"Yeah. I just hope you don't either."

TBC


	7. Chapter Seven

Title:Urban Legends  
Author:Krisdae  
Rating: PG-13  
Warning: Date Rape (Not described)  
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the world of Numb3rs.  
A/N: A big thanks goes to Marvinetta for being such a wonderful beta. I really appreciate all you do!  
Reviews: Yes please!

Thank you to all of you who have reviewed. It's nice to know people are still reading and enjoying!

Urban Legends

Chapter Seven

Don and Terry pulled up in an apartment complex not far from the hospital. It was a fenced community, but the gate was open. One of those places that sold people on being safe, but never quite following through. Brian Wohlmer's apartment was on the top floor of the three-story building and the wooden steps leading up to it were not in the best of shape. They knocked on the door to 307 and waited.

After a few minutes, the door opened to reveal a young man about Charlie's age. He had a pleasant face that was showing signs of being very tired. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Agent Eppes, this is Agent Lake. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

The man hesitated briefly and Don thought he was going to tell them to go away, but then he stepped back, allowing the agents to enter the apartment. He led them past the kitchen to the living room and sat on the couch. "So, how can I help you?"

"I understand that you're working with Dr. Condron at the hospital on some drug trials," Don began.

Brian nodded, "Yes, I've been working with him on the project since I entered my residency."

"What can you tell us about the side effects of this drug?"

Brian shook his head, "I'm really sorry, but I can't tell you anything about the drug trial. I'm not at liberty to discuss it." Brian sounded regretful, but continued. "You might try talking to Dr. Condron. He is in charge of the program and might be willing to disclose that kind of information." As Terry jotted something down, Brian's leg began to bounce. "Can you tell me what this is all about?"

Terry watched Brian's leg for a minute. "You seem a little nervous. Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no," Brian answered quickly. "It's just been a long couple of days. Anytime I have to work a double shift, I drink a lot of coffee. It can take me a while to wind down."

"You work double shifts often?" Don asked.

"All the time," Brian replied, laughing slightly. "Just because they put a cap on the number of hours an intern can work in a hospital, doesn't mean my hours are going to be normal."

"What about weekends?" Terry asked. "Do you work a lot of those?"

"Everyone does. In fact, I've worked double shifts the last three weekends now. This weekend I'm supposed to have off, finally."

As Terry jotted down this information in her book, Don picked up the questions again. "What can you tell me about Jack Timmons?"

"The boy who came in the other day?" Brian hesitated before answering. "I'm not sure what you're looking for. All I can tell you is that he was a part of the study at the hospital. Dr. Condron is trying to see if there is any connection to his death and the study. If there was, it was some sort of error." Brian smiled weakly, "It's one of the reasons I've been working so hard this week. Dr. Condron is on a mission. Again, you should really talk to him for any details."

Don realized that this kid was trying to get him to talk to someone else. That either meant he didn't' know anything and couldn't help, or that he knew all too much and didn't want to have to talk to the Feds. "Did you know him? I mean before the study?"

"No, should I?"

"He was a student at CalSci," offered Terry. "Isn't that where you went to school?"

"Yeah," admitted Brian. "But that was before medical school. It was several years ago, I'm not really in a place to meet CalSci students. Not unless they're in the hospital for some reason."

"What about at Forbidden Sights?" Don asked. "Ever hang out there?"

"Well, sure. It was a favorite hangout when I was in school and it's still a nice place to go to wind down after a stressful week."

"It's a favorite hangout for CalSci students," Terry commented.

"I'm sure it is," responded Brian, starting to sound a little annoyed. "Look, I know where you're going with this. I'm sure that I must have seen Timmons at Forbidden Sights at some point since I was there all the time and he obviously went there as well, but I didn't know him, I didn't talk to him outside of the study. And I really think you should be asking Dr. Condron your questions and not me." He rose from the couch suddenly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I haven't slept in almost 48 hours and I need to get some rest."

Don and Terry followed him to the door, and headed to the car.

"Well," Terry said. "Do you think I hit a nerve?"

"Yeah, but to what? The question about knowing Jack Timmons outside the study or the fact that Forbidden Sights is such a hangout for CalSci students?"

"He's got an alibi for last weekend."

"He thinks he does," replied Don. "But, let's make sure. It's possible he went to Forbidden Sights in between or after his shifts."

The guy entered Forbidden Sights and headed over to the guy behind the bar. "Hey man." They were alone, no one else being in the building at this hour.

"Hey, how'd it go?"

"It kinda sucked. He's all upset at what happened the other night with that guy."

"He's upset? The owner got really pissed when we had to shut down for a couple of days."

"Yeah, well, he said we have to stop using the stuff."

"What? Why?"

"The guy who died… it was from an overdoes of the stuff."

"No way. He told us…he promised us that no one would get hurt from it."

"Yeah, well someone did. He says we have to stop using the stuff until things cool off."

"And what are we supposed to tell our clients?"

The first man shrugged. "I don't know. Tell them that we're getting more, but that we have to wait for it to arrive or something."

"What about the stuff we have left? Can we use that?"

"I don't know, man. It sounds like a bad idea."

"Yeah, well if our man's nervous about the death the other night, I sure as hell don't want this stuff around if the cops start sniffing. I say we get rid of it this weekend. All of it. We can just disperse it evenly throughout the night."

"I think it's a bad idea."

"Yeah, well, it's not your decision to make. Come on, we could use the cash it might bring in."

"All right, but if he gets mad, YOU get to deal with him."

When the weekend arrived, Charlie began to really feel nervous about his decision to go to Forbidden Sights. But he was no less determined. All he had to do to convince himself was remember the look on Amita's face last Sunday morning when she had told him about her attack. Anything he could do to help Amita would be well worth it.

Amita had helped him pick out an outfit for the club, since she assured him that his usual t-shirt and jacket wouldn't really fit in at the club. She had gone through his closet to find an appropriate outfit and Charlie just hoped he could manage to fit in.

After Amita picked him up, they headed over to the club in silence. "You know, Charlie, you don't really have to do this," Amita said as she parked the car.

"I think I should be saying that to you."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure that if I decided not to go, you'd just go on your own and I don't want to think about what would happen to you without a friend to protect you."

Charlie studied Amita, "Come on, it can't be that bad."

Amita just laughed and shook her head. "Come on, Charlie, let's get this over with."

The club was loud. Not just from the music, but from the people around them. There were several booths, most of which looked over the sunken dance floor. The bar at the end of the main room also had a good view of the floor. People were everywhere, moving in all directions, causing Charlie to feel disoriented. He began to feel nervous until he felt Amita grab his elbow.

"Let's go find a booth, Charlie," she suggested and began to drag him through the crowd. Charlie was amazed at her ability to move through the chaos with minimal effort. He thought she must have knowledge of the crowd from previous visits.

They found a booth and sat down. Charlie took in all the sights around them. "All right, Amita, tell me what happened when you were here. Where were you guys sitting last week?"

Amita pointed towards a booth not far from the bar. "We sat at that table. We got here pretty early and I went up to the bar to order a drink…"

It was Friday and it was late. Two things that meant Don should have been headed home. But, here he was, still in the FBI office, looking over the notes he and Terry had gathered throughout the last few days. Terry was still here, and David was looking up some information for them. It made Don feel grateful that his co-workers and friends stayed with him at times like this. He knew he was work obsessed, but sometimes the only way he could get to sleep at night was if he knew he'd done all he could have for the day.

Terry looked up from her notes. "Wohlmer's in on it. I'm sure of it."

"He has an alibi for last week."

"Maybe, but these attacks are pretty random. If Wohlmer's supplying the drug, he wouldn't have to actually be at the club, would he?"

"But how can we connect him with it?" asked Don. "If he's not at the scene…" he trailed off as David came up.

"I found something you need to know." He held out a printout for Don ad Terry to read. "Wohlmer used to be a bartender when he was in college. And guess where he worked."

"Forbidden Sights," Don answered. "There's your connection, Terry."

"Maybe some of the people he worked with are still there?" Terry suggested.

"Let's find out," Don suggested as he pulled his chair up to his desk and reached for the phone.

Charlie had been over Amita's story several times. He had been by the booth where Amita had been the weekend before. In fact, barring the women's restroom, he'd been everywhere Amita had been and didn't see anything that was out of the ordinary. Of course, how much had Charlie been expecting to find on a busy night?

Feeling somewhat frustrated, he made his way over to the bar. "Two waters please," he told the bar tender.

"Sure thing." The guy turned around and grabbed a couple of glasses. "Your girlfriend's cute." He said as he put the glasses down behind the bar and began to fill them.

Charlie looked over at the table and smiled at Amita, "She's not my girlfriend, but thanks."

The guy behind the counter smiled. "You know, she could be. Your girlfriend I mean."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that a guy like you shouldn't have to take no for an answer."

"I don't understand…what do you—"

"Hey, Justin! Hurry it up!" another bartender shouted towards them.

"All right," answered the bartender. He turned back to Charlie. "Look, all I'm saying is that you're out at a popular college club and all you have to do is take your girl on the floor. Trust me, the rest will be easy."

Charlie was a little confused. "Uhm…"

"Hey, just make sure she drinks a lot of water before going out there. Once you're on the floor, you don't want her to have that excuse." The guy handed the drinks to Charlie. "Trust me. And have a good time." He winked before heading off to the other end of the bar.

Charlie was confused by the entire encounter, thinking it was out of place and he should mention it to Don. Charlie almost thought the guy might have offered him this drug to make Amita and easy target, but he'd been called away before getting that far in the conversation. But still, Charlie checked both drinks to see if there was anything strange about them. He saw nothing. And besides, the guy behind the counter didn't know which drink was his and which was Amita's. They were safe.

David came back to the desk as Don got off the phone. "I spoke to one of the managers at Forbidden Sights. He says that Wohlmer had been a bartender for several years while he was in college. Says he was a member of Beta Omega Gamma and that several of the guys who have worked there over the years are in the same Fraternity."

"There's our connection," Terry commented.

Don added, "I spoke with the owner and he is going to fax over a list of everyone who's worked there for the last 8 years. We should be able to find out just who knows Wohlmer. Good catch on the Fraternity, David. We'll cross reference the names with the fraternity."

"I'll get a list from XTC. Maybe that's how that other attack happened. Once of the guys in the fraternity worked in a different club than the others, but would still know everyone else."

"Right. And let's get the schedules for every bartender that is a member of this fraternity and see if one of them was working every night a known attack happened."

Don's cell rang and he put the paper down to answer it. "Eppes."

_Don, it's Amita._

"Amita? Is everything okay?"

_No. It's Charlie._

"Charlie?" Don asked, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. He looked over to see Terry watching him closely. "Did something happen to him?"

_We were dancing, Don. We were having a good time and then he started acting a little more hyper than usual. I tried to see if he was all right, but he passed out before I got an answer from him._

Don's heart dropped. "Amita? Where are you? Where's Charlie?"

_They're taking him to the hospital, Don. I'm on my way there._

"Listen carefully, Amita. When you get there, tell them to page Dr. Reeves. Tell him you're with me and that Charlie's got the drug in his system. I'm on my way there." Don stood and grabbed his coat as Terry handed it to him.

_I'm so sorry, Don_

"Don't worry about that right now, Amita. I'm on my way there and then we can talk." Don hung up the phone and then looked at Terry.

"I'll drive," she offered as they raced towards the exit. "You call your father."

Don began to dial the phone and prayed that Charlie would be all right.


	8. Chapter Eight

THE LAST ONE!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be :(

Rating:Pg-13

Beta: infomarvinetta Thank you for being such a wonderful beta!

A/N: This is it, folks. The end of the road. You know the drill. R&R

Urban Legends

Chapter Eight

Don paced as he waited for news on Charlie. He hated hospitals, had hated them since long before he got called back from Albuquerque because of his mother's illness. The white walls, the echoing corridor, the sterile feel of the waiting room put a strain on Don's nerves. Hearing the constant pages for doctors, listening to children cry, some from exhaustion, some from pain, knowing that everyone in that room waited to hear about a loved one… and he was sure the old man in the corner was praying in Yiddish. Who in LA prayed in Yiddish anyway? Don stopped his pacing as he realized he sounded a lot like Charlie would in this situation. The thought almost made him smile…almost.

At least Dr. Reeves had been available when Charlie had gotten here. And knowing what was probably in Charlie's system could do nothing but help. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't turn, knowing it was Amita since Terry had offered to go back to the office in order to help find out who had done this to Charlie.

"I'm sorry, Don," Amita said softly.

Don's emotions warred within him. He was scared and tired, but he was also mad at himself. He should have been able to protect his little brother from the harsh realities of the world. But there was no real way to accomplish that. Don wanted to be mad at Amita, he really did, but he knew that what had happened wasn't really her fault. Even if going to the club without telling Don wasn't exactly stupid. Well, it was because Charlie was trying to find out where the drug was coming from, but it shouldn't have been dangerous just to hang out on a Friday night.

He turned towards Amita and led her back to the chairs along the wall. "You don't have to apologize, Amita. You didn't do anything wrong."

Before Amita could respond, Alan came running in. He saw Don and Amita and rushed over. "Donny! Where's Charlie? Is he all right?"

Don stood and put a hand on his father's shoulder. "Charlie's in with the doctors right now. He was drugged—"

"Drugged?" Alan exclaimed.

"Dad, listen. Charlie was slipped something while he was out tonight. The doctors know what it was and they're with him now."

"Is he all right? How could this happen?"

"I'm sure Charlie's going to be fine," Don assured Alan, trying to convince himself of that very thing. "We just need to wait for the doctor to come out." He half supported, half dragged his father over to the chairs and sat him down. "Let me go see if I can find someone who knows something," he offered. Don headed over to the nurse's station, hoping someone could find out what was happening with Charlie.

&&&&&&&

Terry walked into the office and over to David's desk. "Charlie's in with the doctors now, they're trying to get his system under control," Terry started, answering the unasked question in David's eyes. "They're treating him for a drug overdose of that TX147 compound they've been researching, but it will be a few hours before they really know anything."

"Is Don all right?"

"He will be, as long as nothing happens to Charlie. Amita's at the hospital with him and his father's probably there by now, so he's not alone." Terry sat in her chair and rolled it up to David's desk. "The best thing we can do right now is find out who did this to Charlie. It's what Don would want."

David pulled out his notes. "I've made a list of all the Beta Omega Gamma members from the last few years. I took the list from Forbidden Sights and there are currently 2 bartenders that are members of the fraternity, dating back 5 years. And one waiter who joined the fraternity this year."

"What about XTC employees?"

"Well, currently there are not any Beta Omega Gamma members working there, but there was a waiter that had been in the fraternity that worked there from August through November."

"That co-insides with the attack on Carol. He could have been working the night of the attack."

"Yes. He moved out of state after he graduated this past winter. I also looked over the schedule and, although there was no one person who worked every night we know an attack happened, at least one of these boys was working during every attack."

"Well," Terry thought. "Fraternities are close. These boys probably would rely on each other for alibis and what better way than to make sure none of you are a common factor…" She paused as she thought. "We have a pretty good idea that Wohlmer is supplying the drugs, but he's not going to talk. You've been looking over the lists, who do you think we should contact?"

David looked over his lists. "I think we should talk to Sam White. He just joined the fraternity this year and may be more willing to talk to us."

Terry nodded. "Or less scared. If he hasn't been in with the others for very long than he may not feel as much of the loyalty that the others would."

David looked at his watch. "It will have to wait until morning. Sam White is not scheduled to work tonight and even if someone's used to working late hours, calling them at 2:00am is not a good idea."

Terry nodded, knowing that David was right. "Okay. We can stop by his apartment in the morning. I'm going to call Don and see how Charlie's doing and then head home."

"Good night, Terry," David said as he gathered his files.

&&&&&&&

Don stood up as Dr. Reeves came over to the waiting area. Alan approached them and Don took a moment for introductions. "Dr. Reeves, this is our father, Alan. Dad, Dr. Reeves has been taking care of Charlie."

"How is he?" Alan asked desperately.

Dr. Reeves addressed both of them. "Well, he managed to ingest quite a bit of the TX147, and his body was reacting to it. But, since the young woman told us what was in Charlie's system, we were able to counteract the overdose fairly easily."

"So he's okay?"

Dr. Reeves nodded. "He'll be just fine." Don felt relief rush through him and almost missed the rest of Dr. Reeves's statement. "…so he may be in and out a bit for the next few hours. Yes, you may visit him," Dr. reeves supplied with a twinkle, obviously anticipating the question. "And he's been asking for you, Don, but let him rest as much as possible. And as long as everything looks good tomorrow, we'll be able to send him home."

"Thank you, Doctor," Don said as Alan went to fill Amita in on the news.

Dr. Reeves just smiled. "I just wish we could have found out more about who is doing this, Agent."

"We're working on it, Dr. Reeves. And I think we're getting close, now."

"Well, I hope you find out before someone else ingests too much of this stuff." Dr. Reeves beckoned a young nurse over. "Stacy here will show you to your brother's room."

Don thanked the doctor once more and followed the young lady to see Charlie.

&&&&&&&

The first thing Charlie did when he saw Don walk in the room was apologize. "Don, I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have gone out on my own without telling you. I should have just waited for you to figure out what was going on, but I just couldn't—"

"Hey, Buddy," Don said gently, sitting next to the bed. "Don't worry about it. It's not like you went there to be bait or anything, Amita said you were just checking the place out to see if we had missed anything."

Charlie looked over towards the wall, not feeling worthy of Don's forgiveness and fearing the look of disappointment he would see. He felt Don touch his shoulder and looked back, seeing only worry and pain in his eyes.

Charlie watched Don for a few minutes and then remembered why he'd insisted on the nurses letting him see Don. "Don," Charlie struggled to sit up, but Don held him down. "I have to tell you what happened."

Don held Charlie down with a hand on his shoulder. "Don't sit up, Charlie, you can tell me what you need to from there."

Charlie lay back and began to fill Don in on his strange conversation with the bartender. He watched Don's eyes go cold and hard as he finished. "Don? Everything okay?"

Don patted Charlie's shoulder, "Yeah, Charlie. Everything's going to be fine. Are you sure the other guy called him Justin?"

"I think so. Why? Is that a name you know?"

"Not yet," Don answered, "But if Terry and David have been working on this case tonight, they may have come across the name by now."

Charlie struggled to sit up, Don's preoccupation allowing him. "You think he's the one who's been attacking people? The one who got Amita last weekend? But why would he have drugged me?"

"I don't have all the answers yet, Charlie. But I know I'm getting close," Don reassured Charlie. "But right now, you need to get some rest. Dad will want to see you and probably Amita as well, but you need to get some rest."

Charlie nodded, knowing Don was right. He settled himself against the pillows more comfortably as Don let his father and Amita in. There was little else he could do until he was out of the hospital.

&&&&&&&

David and Terry met at the office Saturday morning before heading over to Sam White's apartment. Terry hoped that the young man hadn't been a part of the fraternity long enough to feel the bonds of loyalty that she was sure older members would feel. Maybe Sam would be willing to help them. And David had suggested focusing on the young man who had died instead of the other attacks. After all, a guy may look the other way for some things, but killing another person was a very serious matter.

Terry rang the bell and waited for an answer. After a couple of minutes, a boy of about 19 answered. He took one look at the agents and paled. Terry supposed that was a good sign. He obviously knew something. And from the slightly frightened look he was wearing, it wouldn't be too hard to get it from him.

They followed him inside and sat down. "Mr. White," Terry began. "We need to ask you some questions."

"What about?" the young man asked nervously.

"About a guy who died at Forbidden Sights this week," David supplied.

"I heard it was some sort of freak accident," Sam said, not sounding very convinced.

"I'm afraid not," David explained. "We have reason to believe that he was drugged."

"Aw man. I knew something was up."

"What do you mean?" asked Terry.

"I was working Monday when that guy came in."

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"Well, I was waiting tables and I had this girl who was waiting. She told me someone was meeting her and when he got there he'd want a drink, so I tried to check back every few minutes. It's pretty common and usually means better tips for me. But when she ordered her second drink she told me I shouldn't bother looking to see if he had arrived anymore because he obviously wasn't coming.

"Justin was working the bar when I came up for the second drink and he asked me if I was going to try hitting on the girl. We know each other from school and he's always picking on me about getting dates. I told him that she had been stood up by her boyfriend, and that's when Justin started acting a little weird."

"Weird how?" asked Terry.

"Well, he told me that her being stood up was a perfect opportunity to take my chances. He told me to take the drink back and wait for her to finish it. Then, I should ask her to dance and the rest would be easy."

"And that was strange?" Terry asked.

"Well, it's how he said it. It wasn't like the normal pep talk I get from the guys. And I'm pretty sure some of the guys have been slipping things into girl's drinks." Sam seemed to realize what he said and hastily added, "Not that I know anything for sure, it's just that when I joined my fraternity, some of the guys were making jokes about drugging girls and stuff. I told them I didn't think that was cool and they have said anything since. But every now and then I think maybe…"

"But you weren't a part of that?" questioned David.

"No way, man!" Sam sounded outraged and Terry was inclined to believe him. He showed no signs of lying.

Terry knew they were on the right track, but still needed something more from Sam White in order to secure any kind of warrant. "Sam, I know these guys are your friends, but if you think they are in any way responsible to what happened to Jake Timmons this past week, you have to let us know."

Sam was quiet for a few minutes. Then he nodded, "I don't know anything for certain, but I heard Justin and Mark talking yesterday at the club. I'd left my Chem. lab in the back the night before so I had to go in and get it. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but I did hear them say something about getting rid of the stuff last night. That someone was worried about the cops."

&&&&&&&

As Terry and David left Sam White's house, Terry called Don for an update. His input from Charlie was also helpful.

After she hung up David asked, "So, what does Don think?"

"He thinks we have enough for a warrant to search the club. And Charlie had a similar conversation with this Justin last night before he passed out, so I'm sure he's one of the people that's giving out the drugged drinks."

"So we get a warrant?" David asked.

"Don's calling it in now." Terry smiled to herself. Don had wanted a way to stay involved, but didn't want to have to leave the hospital. "All we need to do is wait."

&&&&&&&

Charlie was feeling better. After getting a good night's sleep and having a nice talk with his father and with Amita, he felt better about what had happened. And Don wasn't mad at him. He'd been afraid that Don would hold this against him for a while, but it looked as if he had underestimated his brother again.

Don had stayed in the hospital all night and through the morning, even though Charlie knew that a lot was happening on the case. He had even told Charlie and Amita that morning that they were getting a warrant for searching the club for the TX147 that had ended up in Charlie's system.

Now, he was just ready to go home. He loved his father and Don for the fact that he hadn't really been left alone. And Amita had called Larry that morning and he had wasted no time in getting to the hospital to see how Charlie was doing.

Larry had spent a couple of hours expounding on the philosophy of putting oneself out of their normal environment. He was about to go into the tragic tale of a previous mathematician when Don's phone rang yet again. Don was trying to keep a handle on the investigation, but had let Charlie know that by staying out of the middle of things, there couldn't be any question about personal involvement and the bad guys were more likely to stay in jail once they were there.

A few more hours and Charlie could go home. He let the voices of his friends and family wash over him as he began to drift off. If he couldn't go home yet, at least he could get some sleep.

&&&&&&&

Don was glad that he had such efficient partners. They had called to tell him they had found some traces of the TX147 at Forbidden Sights. And one Justin Evans had been on the scene at the time. They took him into custody and it wasn't long before he was telling them everything. They had several boys in the fraternity and some who had already graduated. And more importantly, they had Wohlmer. Confessions meant no trials and that was good for all parties involved, especially the victims.

And the best part of it all was, he didn't have to do any of the paperwork. He didn't even have to go into the office until Monday. He was just about to enter Charlie's room again when he heard him speaking quietly with Amita.

"I'm glad it's all over," Amita was saying. "And I'm glad that no one else is going to be hurt by this."

"I'm just sorry you got hurt, Amita," Charlie answered. "And I wish I had been able to help. I feel like all I did was stumble around and cause more trouble. What good is all the math in the world if I can't help my friends?"

Don's heart clenched as he heard the distress in Charlie's voice. Charlie, who was always so exuberant and carefree about most of life. He wasn't supposed to feel so bad about himself, especially not for something he had little control over. And it was often the older brother's job to make it right.

Don stepped into the room, "I'm just here to tell you that Wohlmer's been taken into custody and has confessed to distributing the drug. Timmon's overdose was an accident. Seems they were sometimes randomly distributing the drug so that it couldn't be traced back to any specific people. When Timmon's drank his girlfriend's drink, he ended up with way too much of it in his system because of his involvement with the hospital's trial. Needless to say, the project has been put on hold until they find out if the death was unusual or if the drug is more dangerous than they had first believed."

"Thank you, Don," Amita said. "I really appreciate what you've done."

"Don't thank me, thank Charlie," Don replied smiling. "He's the one who actually got this case moving. We wouldn't have been able to even find out what had caused Jake Timmon's death if we hadn't been poking around the hospital the day before." He was glad to see Charlie perk up a little bit at that.

"Well, thank you both, then." Amita amended as she rose from her seat next to Charlie. "I'm going to go. Take care Charlie and I'll see you on Monday."

"Bye, Amita." Charlie called as she left. Don watched him for a few minutes until Charlie sighed dramatically. "When do I get out of here?"

Don grinned. "What, you don't like having people wait on you hand and foot?"

"If I wanted room service, I certainly wouldn't start here. The food's bad, the noise is way too loud and the décor leaves much to be desired."

"Oh, I don't know, Charlie. There's always the chance of finding a nurse to keep you company."

Charlie grinned back. "Believe me, Steve is not my type."

Don chuckled along with Charlie, glad that everything would be going back to normal.

The End


End file.
